Pixelation and loss of signal on ESPN and other channels

hokie74

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Feb 24, 2008
180
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About an hour ago I began to notice pixelation and dropouts on all the ESPN channels and several others. The local (Colorado Springs) channels are fine. I checked my satellite signal meter and they all seem normal. I checked the DirecTV technical forum and a number of people from all over the US are reporting the same issue.
 
About an hour ago I began to notice pixelation and dropouts on all the ESPN channels and several others. The local (Colorado Springs) channels are fine. I checked my satellite signal meter and they all seem normal. I checked the DirecTV technical forum and a number of people from all over the US are reporting the same issue.

There is a problem with the 99 satellite that is providing that channel. If you check ESPN2, CNN, and a bunch of others, it is the same way while others are fine. No timetable for resolution. You'll have to switch to the SD feed for now, or watch on the small box on the Sports Mix channel.
 
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Yep ...

The issue is being widely reported ...

And as I posted on the main thread for this on dbstalk forum. It's been affecting one of the RSNs in the LA market too, "Spectrum SportsNet" ch. 691, for a while now screwing up the Lakers games.

Natually the DIRECTV reps. are as clueless as ever ...

The only common link so far seems to be that all the affected channels are on 99(ca). Which is the "T14" satellite at 99° W.L.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk
 
There is a problem with the 99 satellite that is providing that channel. If you check ESPN2, CNN, and a bunch of others, it is the same way while others are fine. No timetable for resolution. You'll have to switch to the SD feed for now, or watch on the small box on the Sports Mix channel.
Could be sun spots like they have in May.
 
Yep ...

The issue is being widely reported ...

And as I posted on the main thread for this on dbstalk forum. It's been affecting one of the RSNs in the LA market too, "Spectrum SportsNet" ch. 691, for a while now screwing up the Lakers games.

Natually the DIRECTV reps. are as clueless as ever ...

The only common link so far seems to be that all the affected channels are on 99(ca). Which is the "T14" satellite at 99° W.L.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk
Why would you think a CSR would have any accurate info about this ?

Now if you happened to get one of the Technical depts people they might have info ...

We probably have better contacts for that kind of stuff on the other site.
 
Probably one of the big IP routers at the specific uplink site. They can glitch, affecting all traffic through it and its very hard to diagnose. Or maybe they accidentally have virus protection software running on something in the video compression area using up the computing resources again. Or it could be a defective block upconverter in the hub of the uplink antenna causing excessive phase noise or its gone out of lock, or yada yada, etc.

If its affecting everything on a single satellite and its all from the same broadcast center, same uplink antenna and they can't get a handle on it quickly, it would be good to check for the same problem at the backup site, which can isolate the RF section from the IP stream side. If backup site is good, switch!

Could be sun spots like they have in May.
 
Looks like the SD versions are OK. It took me a while to figure out where to unhide those. In screwing around I figured out I had the ACC Network now here in Colorado. I wonder when they added that?
 
Why would you think a CSR would have any accurate info about this ?

Now if you happened to get one of the Technical depts people they might have info ...

We probably have better contacts for that kind of stuff on the other site.
Oh ...

I should have mentioned that I was actually referring to what another poster on dbstalk who stated that DIRECTV's Twitter page was being lit-up with complaints over this.

And the responses from those answering the Twitter complaints and inquiries was totally clueless and useless.

Either ...

1) DM them your name and acc. #, and they'll look into personally get back to you.

Or

2) Give you a list of common troubleshooting steps.

Believe me, I myself never considered contacting DIRECTV CS over this. Since I well know they'd know nothing about it and thus a complete waste of time.

For instance, read "inclined orbit's latest post here.

What CSR, tech
support specialist or otherwise, is going to know anything about any of that stuff?

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk
 
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But if you read ebj1980's post again carefully.

He says right from the start that the satellite at 99W has a problem ....

And by "other channels as well" having the issue, he means other channels that are on the same 99W satellite.

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Yes, that is exactly what I meant, since... that's what I said. Some people don't read or only skim and expect to get the whole idea.

Anyway, it's fixed now.
 
Oh ...

I should have mentioned that I was actually referring to what another poster on dbstalk who stated that DIRECTV's Twitter page was being lit-up with complaints over this.

And the responses from those answering the Twitter complaints and inquiries was totally clueless and useless.

Either ...

1) DM them your name and acc. #, and they'll look into personally get back to you.

Or

2) Give you a list of common troubleshooting steps.

Believe me, I myself never considered contacting DIRECTV CS over this. Since I well know they'd know nothing about it and thus a complete waste of time.

For instance, read "inclined orbit's latest post here.

What CSR, tech
support specialist or otherwise, is going to know anything about any of that stuff?

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

It baffles me that anyone would contact AT&T for anything. The only thing I contact them for is when I need my annual discount and that is hard enough.
 
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The customer will usually know there is a problem well before people at the uplink center know. In fact, an intermittent problem can go on for hours and hours before anyone at ATT/DirecTV are aware of it due to the lack of people and the mostly automated monitoring systems. And there is no mechanism for the customer to let ATT/DirecTV know there is a problem, unless you know the specific broadcast center responsible for the outage and you have internal phone numbers to call.

I've called a broadcast center to ask what's going on and to make them aware of a problem in case they didn't know, but I have phone numbers and names. There have been other DTV employees who have called broadcast centers (not their own) from their home during an outage and demanded they do certain things to try and resolve it. That got them in some hot water, even though they were probably right.

It baffles me that anyone would contact AT&T for anything. The only thing I contact them for is when I need my annual discount and that is hard enough.
 
This wasn’t an intermittent problem. This was an hours long, nationwide outage effecting the most popular channels on a college football Saturday. Yet hours into it, reps were still telling people on Twitter to DM account information or follow troubleshooting steps.

Directv did not get out in front of this. The response was abysmal.

The customer will usually know there is a problem well before people at the uplink center know. In fact, an intermittent problem can go on for hours and hours before anyone at ATT/DirecTV are aware of it due to the lack of people and the mostly automated monitoring systems. And there is no mechanism for the customer to let ATT/DirecTV know there is a problem, unless you know the specific broadcast center responsible for the outage and you have internal phone numbers to call.

I've called a broadcast center to ask what's going on and to make them aware of a problem in case they didn't know, but I have phone numbers and names. There have been other DTV employees who have called broadcast centers (not their own) from their home during an outage and demanded they do certain things to try and resolve it. That got them in some hot water, even though they were probably right.
 
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This wasn’t an intermittent problem. This was an hours long, nationwide outage effecting the most popular channels on a college football Saturday. Yet hours into it, reps were still telling people on Twitter to DM account information or follow troubleshooting steps.

Directv did not get out in front of this. The response was abysmal.
Go back and reread Inclined Orbit's response.
 
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